


Prove

by syrupwit



Series: mcu venom [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Other, Unreliable Narrator, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-05
Updated: 2019-05-05
Packaged: 2020-02-26 11:43:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18716368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/syrupwit/pseuds/syrupwit
Summary: Venom tries to make Peter happy.





	Prove

When Venom was younger, it fantasized about the perfect host. Peter surpasses anything it could have imagined.

Peter has special abilities. He is intelligent, despite his primitive upbringing. He is capable of great conviction, devotion, mental and physical endurance. He is strong, agile, fast to heal -- qualities rare among the species that rules this world, with their flimsy skeletal structures and soft, chewy organs. And he cares deeply for those he loves. The night Venom took him and peered inside his mind for the first time -- what it saw,  the way it felt -- it was like every fantasy had come true, and a few unrealized ones had tagged along on the way. Finally, Venom was home.

They are together. Things should be all right now. But Peter is unhappy.

  

-

 

At first Venom thinks it’s about the killing issue. Peter has made it clear that killing goes against his morals, even if other humans don’t feel the same. Yet he has known others who killed, and not wished them away as he does Venom; yet he continues to wish the same _after_ Venom starts to kill less, even when Venom hides the killing from him. So it can’t just be that.

Something is hurting Peter. He won’t let Venom help. He won’t even tell it what’s wrong. It wants to help. Why won’t he let it? Venom tries anyway. It feeds him, protects him. When he needs rest, it takes him back to his nest and forces his body to sleep. Even then, it curls around him, shielding him from the world.

Peter is safe, Venom wants to say. He is safe with it, with them. When they are together, no one can harm them.

 

-

 

When Peter dreams, he likes to be alone. Venom mostly lets him. For a creature of so few years, Peter has lived a rich life. There are plenty of memories for Venom to rifle through, as well as the stale shades of past dreams to examine. At times, it revisits its own memories: a pit of squirming spawn-mates, a fight with the Kree. Silent black space. The caged god, the abyss. When Peter is ready, Venom will share these stories with him.

One night, though, Venom is restless. It inventories Peter’s bones from skull to toe and back again. It twines itself around his heart, his lungs, counting beats and respirations. It seeps through the front of his sleeping mind and waits to be shooed out.

Peter is busy.

The man with him is a dream, not a memory. Nevertheless, he is familiar. Venom pulls out a scent, a voice, a name, and traces them to a bundle of oft-revisited memories and tangled-up emotions. Mr. Stark -- Tony -- evokes mixed feelings in Peter. Why hasn’t he mentioned him? There’s affection, anger, a spark of fear. Venom delves further.

Ah.

So that’s why.

 

-

 

In Peter’s dream, he and the man are sitting at a picnic table. They have matching sunglasses and deli sandwiches, which they have unwrapped to slowly eat. The dream is infused with Peter’s longing, desperate and hazy. Venom twines the longing around itself as it slips in.

Dream Tony Stark says to Venom, “Private party, buster.”

Venom curls a tendril in Peter’s mind, and Stark dissolves like ripples in a pond.

“You won’t even let me have this,” says dream Peter to Venom. His mouth, both in the dream and in the physical world, flattens into a thin, sad line.

Venom flees.

 

-

 

It’s clear, now, that his yearning for this irritating little man is at least part of what holds Peter back from their bond. Venom can work with that. It will make sure he gets “this” -- the real thing, not its pale ghost. Peter wants the man, so he will have him, in all his dubious, likely unappreciative glory.

Venom will prove that it can fulfill Peter’s desires, even the ones he hides or refuses to confront. Venom will prove that it knows Peter best, that it loves him most, that it can care for him better than anyone else. Venom will prove that it is worthy of Peter’s love.

Then Peter will no longer be unhappy. And after that, he will be _theirs_.


End file.
